Two ’58 Ferraris Lead Arizona Classic Car Auctions Up 11%

A 1958 Ferrari 250 GT California LWB Spyder. The Italian convertible sold for a top price of $8.8 million on the second day of RM Auctions' sale of classic cars in Arizona on Jan. 16-17. Photographer: Ben Majors/RM Auctions via Bloomberg

Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Two 1958 Ferrari convertibles
captured the top prices at a week of classic car auctions in
Arizona that raised $248.6 million, an 11 percent advance on the
equivalent events last year, according to Hagerty, a U.S.-based
classic car price database.

A restored Ferrari 250 GT California LWB Spider sold for
$8.8 million with fees at RM Auctions on Jan. 17, leading the
Arizona sales held by six companies. They are regarded as the
second-most important series of such events in the U.S. after
Pebble Beach, California, in August.

Classic cars were a lucrative alternative investment in
2013. Prices in the dealer and auction markets for exceptional
historic autos rose 47 percent, according to a report this month
from London-based research company Historic Automobile Group
International. Prices for rare Ferraris surged 62 percent for
the year, the HAGI indexes show.

“Demand remains high and lively, even though some of the
estimates were a bit optimistic here,” Dietrich Hatlapa,
founder of HAGI, said in a telephone interview. “The market
took a massive leap in 2013.”

Classic road-going Ferrari racers from the 1950s and ’60s
have become increasingly coveted by wealthy collectors over the
last decade.

The red 250 GT Spider at RM’s two-day sale in Phoenix, one
of 50 LWB California convertibles made by the Italian company
specifically for the U.S. market, sold to a bidder in the room
against a high estimate of $9 million. A 250 GT LWB California
Spider in similarly restored condition sold for $3.4 million at
an auction in Pebble Beach in August 2011, according to HAGI.

‘Signature Brand’

“The California is a signature brand in the Ferrari
market,” McKeel Hagerty, president and chief executive officer
of Hagerty Insurance Agency Inc., said in a telephone interview.
“It sells well in Arizona. This is where a lot of new people
enter the market.”

Another 1958 Ferrari 250 GT convertible, a Cabriolet model
in blue with coachwork by Pinin Farina, fetched $6.2 million at
Gooding & Co.’s Jan. 17-18 auction in Scottsdale, exceeding the
$5 million high estimate.

A total of 2,815 lots were offered by RM, Gooding, Barrett-Jackson Auction Co., Bonhams, Russo & Steele, and Silver
Auctions. Eighty-two percent of the cars were sold, at an
average price of $107,096.

The iconic Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing coupe inspired two
of the week’s biggest positive surprises. A 1955 example, valued
by dealers at $1.2 million to $1.4 million, sold for $2.1
million at Barrett-Jackson’s Jan. 12-19 event, helped by the
sight of British racing legend Stirling Moss driving the car on
to the podium, according to Hatlapa.

Restoration Costs

A black 1956 Gullwing in dilapidated condition, estimated
at $1.1 million-$1.4 million, climbed to $1.9 million at
Gooding. Typifying the excitement that can be generated by
fresh-to-market, totally unrestored cars at auction, that
Mercedes will need a further $400,000 to $500,000 spent on it to
make it roadworthy, according to Hagerty, who questioned the
wisdom of the investment.

“You can spend a lot of money on a restoration car, and
then make a loss at auction,” he said.